The San Juan Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Coun­cil shares some news about the vir­tu­al Mar­itime Career Fair they are pre­sent­ing next week.

Peo­ple inter­est­ed in careers on the water are invit­ed to join the EDC for an online Mar­itime Career Fair on Thurs­day, March 31 from noon to 1 p.m. You will learn about sea­far­ing careers that work here in San Juan Coun­ty. Pre­sen­ters will include a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the whale watch and boat insur­ance indus­tries, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Puget Sound Pilots, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries, and others.

The meet­ing will be held via Zoom so you can attend from any­where, even with just your phone. To reg­is­ter, please vis­it the EDC’s web­site. Par­tic­i­pants must be 18 years old or old­er. For more infor­ma­tion, email the EDC Trades Coor­di­na­tor at mickey@sanjuansedc.org.

Res­i­dents of San Juan Coun­ty who attend the career fair are invit­ed to apply for coach­ing and finan­cial sup­port to defray costs of obtain­ing their Mer­chant Mariner Cre­den­tial (MMC). The EDC will pay for suc­cess­ful appli­cants’ TWIC card and MMC appli­ca­tions, and for the Coast Guard phys­i­cal and drug test, and will assist appli­cants through the process. The num­ber of awards will depend on funds avail­able, and the EDC grate­ful­ly invites donors to sup­port the pro­gram.

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil will hold a sec­ond reg­u­lar meet­ing this week on Tues­day, March 22 at 9 a.m. The Coun­cil will hold two pub­lic hear­ings, includ­ing time for pub­lic comment:

• Approv­ing a res­o­lu­tion to dis­pose of sur­plus Coun­ty per­son­al prop­er­ty by direct sale
• Con­tin­u­ing an ordi­nance of adopt­ing amend­ments to the Per­son­nel Pol­i­cy Man­u­al to Tues­day, April 5

Items up for dis­cus­sion or action include:

• 2021 fourth quar­ter finan­cial report
• Precinct changes, sched­ul­ing pub­lic hear­ing for Tues­day, April 19
• Con­sid­er­ing an ordi­nance amend­ing Coun­ty Code 3.16 (Lodg­ing Tax)
• Amer­i­can Res­cue Plan Act update
• Accep­tance by the Land Bank of a deed for the Hausch­ka Cady Moun­tain property
• Restor­ing the Land Bank Orcas Field Assis­tant posi­tion to 1.0 FTE
• Set­ting a pub­lic hear­ing for a code change for Coun­ty Code 8.20 (Board of Health) for Tues­day, April 19
• Revise Table 18.30.040 (Allow­able and pro­hib­it­ed uses in Rur­al, Resource and Spe­cial Land Des­ig­na­tions) to allow gov­ern­ment offices allowed by right in the RGU, RI and RC zon­ing dis­tricts and with con­di­tion­al use per­mits in the RR, RFF, AG, FOR and C districts.
• Boards & Com­mis­sions Code of Con­duct Policy

The meet­ing will also include a coun­cil and leg­isla­tive update, an update from the Coun­ty Man­ag­er, and an update from the Coun­cil Clerk. In addi­tion, the Coun­cil will hold three non-pub­lic Exec­u­tive ses­sions — one to dis­cuss lit­i­ga­tion with legal coun­sel, one to eval­u­ate the qual­i­fi­ca­tions of an appli­cant for pub­lic employ­ment or to review the per­for­mance of a pub­lic employ­ee, and the oth­er relat­ed to data security.

You can view the live stream of the meet­ing online or attend in per­son at the Coun­cil Leg­isla­tive Hear­ing Room. Masks are required for in-per­son atten­dance. To make a pub­lic com­ment, sign up pri­or to 9 a.m. on March 22.

There’s a new stor­age facil­i­ty locat­ed next to the old ani­mal shel­ter build­ing on Shel­ter Road. Call 360–298-8873 for more information.

Fri­day Har­bor High School placed sec­ond in the state in the Com­put­er Inte­grat­ed Man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pe­ti­tion at the 2022 Wash­ing­ton Tech­nol­o­gy Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion annu­al con­fer­ence last week.

Back by pop­u­lar demand, the Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter’s out­door play­group for chil­dren three years of age or younger returns two weeks from today, April 4, at the Fairgrounds.

The San Juan Preser­va­tion Trust’s first Island Mar­ble But­ter­fly project of the year takes place today. Vol­un­teers will be seed­ing host plants at three habi­tat plots cre­at­ed for the but­ter­fly. There are two ses­sions, both at Red Mill Farm. One is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the oth­er goes from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

SJP­T’s Ellis Pre­serve on Shaw Island re-opened last week. You can vis­it Thurs­day through Mon­day, from dawn to dusk, through the summer.

Gilli­gan’s Island Style E‑Bike Rentals is mov­ing around the cor­ner to 175 First Street, next to Alo­ha Fri­day Hawai­ian BBQ.

The Jol­ly Trol­ley busi­ness is for sale due to health rea­sons. The own­ers are offer­ing a great price for the upcom­ing busy sea­son, which starts in April. For more details call 360–298-8873.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!

Unit­ed Way of San Juan Coun­ty shares an update about funds they recent­ly pro­vid­ed to sev­er­al local orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the San Juan Island Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter, the San Juan Island School Dis­trict, Meals on Wheels, and Island Rides.

We are proud to announce that Unit­ed Way of San Juan Coun­ty allo­cat­ed $81,000 to sev­en local non-prof­its and a school dis­trict serv­ing San Juan Coun­ty res­i­dents this year. The allo­ca­tions were made pos­si­ble by dona­tions dur­ing the 2021 Unit­ed Way of San Juan Coun­ty fundrais­ing. We great­ly appre­ci­ate the gen­eros­i­ty of our donors, espe­cial­ly dur­ing such a dif­fi­cult and some­times volatile time.

“These allo­ca­tions may help a child strug­gling in school, a cold weath­er shel­ter for the home­less, or an elder need­ing help with trans­porta­tion to remain inde­pen­dent in their home,” said UWSJC Pres­i­dent William Mor­ris­sey. “Imag­ine the impact you can have with your dona­tion. The num­ber of needs con­tin­ues to grow, but we are proud to live in a gen­er­ous com­mu­ni­ty that takes care of their own.”

We have expe­ri­enced incred­i­ble demon­stra­tions of com­pas­sion, hope, resilience, kind­ness and grat­i­tude from the orga­ni­za­tions and pro­grams we sup­port. Con­tin­ue Reading

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil will hold a reg­u­lar meet­ing on Mon­day, March 21 at 9 a.m. Items up for dis­cus­sion or action include:

• Wash­ing­ton State Fer­ries and Fer­ry Advi­so­ry Committee
• Com­mu­ni­ty Health Ser­vices van pur­chase and retro­fit proposal
• Fair­grounds solar project and fund­ing update
• MacK­aye Har­bor road relo­ca­tion project update
• Autho­riza­tion of FEMA haz­ard mit­i­ga­tion grant submittal

The Coun­cil will also hold a non-pub­lic Exec­u­tive ses­sion to dis­cuss lit­i­ga­tion or poten­tial lit­i­ga­tion with legal counsel.

You can view the live stream of the meet­ing online or attend in per­son at the Coun­cil Leg­isla­tive Hear­ing Room. Masks are required for in-per­son atten­dance. To make a pub­lic com­ment, sign up pri­or to 9 a.m. on March 21.

The Fri­day Har­bor High School PTA is host­ing a bake sale fundrais­er dur­ing next week’s FHHS pro­duc­tion of Foot­loose, from Thurs­day through Sun­day — and they need peo­ple to bake things like cup­cakes, cook­ies and brownies.

The Gar­den Cen­ter at Browne’s has a new deliv­ery of veg­gies, fruits, shrubs, peren­ni­als and houseplants.

Last Sat­ur­day’s Des­o­la­tion Sound con­cert at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre raised $2,053 for the Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter and SJCT.

The library has some new addi­tions to its games col­lec­tion, thanks to the Spiel Foun­da­tion.

Vin­ny’s Ris­torante re-opened last night. Going for­ward they’ll be open Tues­day through Sat­ur­day from 4 to 9 p.m.

The Vic’s Dri­ve In build­ing is still for sale, but the price has been dropped over $200,000, from $1.2 mil­lion to $995,000.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!